T&T fall 3-1 to Ecuador amid general apathy; local tv stations snub game

Trinidad and Tobago were well beaten but not disgraced in Guayaquil tonight as the Soca Warriors were undone by two late strikes in a 3-1 loss to South American hosts Ecuador.

Ecuador scored first through forward Juan Luis Anangonó in the 21st minute only for Carlyle Mitchell to equalise with a brilliant header in the 41st minute. Midfielder Fernando Gaibor put the home nation back in the driver’s seat with a successful penalty kick in the 73rd minute before substitute Jacob Murillo settled the friendly contest with a stoppage-time insurance item.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago midfielder Hughtun Hector (centre) executes a volleyed pass during international friendly action against Barbados at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva on 10 March 2017.(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)

It was the third straight loss and fifth successive outing without a win for Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team head coach Dennis Lawrence although he is likely to see the bright side of a loss away to a nation ranked 31st in the world by FIFA—47 places higher than the two-island republic.

Both teams were not at full strength as the exhibition game was played outside the FIFA international match window although Ecuador used four players from their last Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying match.

The Ecuadorians are sixth in CONMEBOL at present and two points shy of a FIFA Play-off berth. They next travel to Brazil on 31 August before hosting Peru on 5 September.

The Warriors host Honduras on 1 September and then head to Panama on 5 September—although Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams suggested there might be two more friendlies before then.

John-Williams has already confirmed that their upcoming World Cup qualifier against Honduras will be played at the smaller Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva and pointed to diminishing enthusiasm from local fans as the main reason for ditching the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain.

The local football body might find further justification for the venue change in the local television stations’ apparent lack of interest in broadcasting tonight’s match even at an alleged cut-price deal that would have seen them only concede airtime—rather than cash—to the TTFA.

In Trincity Mall, for instance, the Bootleggers Sports Bar management refused to allow even one screen to show the Trinidad and Tobago contest, all five of their television sets instead beaming a pre-season friendly between Manchester United and Barcelona.

DirecTV did offer the game on its own channel 617 after it turned out that—despite an earlier Wired868 report—Flow Sports had not committed to broadcast the friendly.

The Warriors had their own problems as they fell behind after just 21 minutes, Mitchell failing to decisively deal with a cross and Anangonó pouncing on his loose touch to open the scoring.

Unsurprisingly, Trinidad and Tobago spent long periods chasing the ball but midfielders Jomal Williams and Nathan Lewis did offer an attacking threat in the first half and the former player almost conjured up an equaliser with an outrageous curling effort in the 27th minute after eluding one defender.

Mitchell, who was also booked in the first half, then atoned for his earlier error with a splendid flicked header off a Hughtun Hector free-kick that zipped into the corner for the equaliser.

The India-bound defender was replaced at half-time—and it is worth remembering that tonight’s affair in Guayaquil was his first high-level game since a muscular injury five months ago.

The young men in red, white and black gear might have conjured up an unlikely go-ahead item in the 66th minute, when striker Keron Clarke reacted smartly to latch on to a clever Hector pass only to be denied by the legs of Ecuador custodian Esteban Dreer.

A full-time employee at WASA and lower-league player with FC Santa Rosa, Clarke has already caught the attention of the football public after his assertion that, as a Seventh Day Adventist, he would rule himself out of the Honduras qualifier which it is carded to be played on the Sabbath.

Clarke struggled at times tonight—as did most of the squad with the possible exceptions of Hector, utility player Curtis Gonzales and defender Triston Hodge—but there were some glimpses of the sharpness of body and mind that earned him a starting place ahead of India-based striker Willis Plaza.

At 1-1, though, the scoreline did flatter Trinidad and Tobago as Ecuador created at least two clear scoring opportunities before they were offered a late penalty kick. Right-back Alvin Jones complained bitterly that he had got the ball but he took a piece of opposing attacker Ayrton Preciado as well.

And Phillip, who was not blameless in the sequence that led to the spot kick, was well beaten by Gaibor.

Lawrence made four late changes to give his bench a taste of the atmosphere but Ecuador benefitted as Murillo blasted home from inside the area after a dizzying exchange of passes.

The friendly affair was followed by the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup final, which pitted T&T’s Caribbean rivals Jamaica against tournament hosts the United States. Jamaica eventually succumbed 2-1 after a 88th minute winner by US midfielder Jordan Morris.

Trinidad and Tobago did not even qualify for the competition. But then it is the Warriors and not Jamaica who are four games away from a possible World Cup place—even though the ‘bandwagonists’ might have already averted their attention.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago football fans enjoy the show during 2018 World Cup qualifying action at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on 24 March 2017.(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)

About Lasana Liburd

Lasana Liburd is the CEO and Editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.

The Jamaican coach beat quite a few non-Caribbean teams to get to the final, including Mexico. I hope you know that Roland Clarke. How does that fit your theory that Caribbean coaches don’t know what they are doing?

Kendall, that wasn’t Jamaica’s first string team either. There were zero England-based players in their squad.
And Mexico has one of the strongest domestic leagues in this part of the world. You’d expect any top flight profession to be the match of a Caribbean player–especially if we are as crap as some think.

Sure. But I would expect a second string team from a nation with as many players to call on as Mexico would have even better odds against a second string Jamaica team.
It was a good accomplishment by them.

No sympathy for Mexico. They got to the semifinals which said something about their ability.
Jamaica had 10 players from their domestic league which doesn’t even compare in strength to our Pro League.
I mean Jamaica didn’t carry Wes Morgan and another half dozen players from competitive leagues in Europe…
If you say Mexico were under strength then you have to say that so were Jamaica. It was a significant accomplishment in my books.
Mind you, they played Mexico twice… 180 minutes and Mexico didn’t score a single goal.

I have no sympathy for anyone. And all I am saying that since neither team was at full strength, you cannot draw any conclusions on what this means going forward. I did say Jamaica did well to reach the final.

Timothy I don’t know the story of their failed World Cup well enough as in their issues.
They were in a group with Costa Rica, Panama and Haiti. And to be honest, there is no guarantee that we would have done better in that group.

A squard of half inxperience players and when the quilfiers comes around most will not be playing what is really his objective insult on the fiotball bigger stage new boy clarkie and most may not be selected what is the objective ????

Well we was going good with Hart as coach and Raymond Tim Kee as President but then it had TTFA election they find that was not good enough David John Williams he was elected we started to get bad results Hart was fired everything started to go down hill the old ppl say when you on good house bad house does call u

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